Policy Basics

Medicare provides health coverage to 47 million Americans, mainly people age 65 and older but also several million younger adults with permanent disabilities.

We analyze proposals that would affect Medicare (such as replacing its guarantee of coverage with a premium-support voucher) to evaluate their impact on beneficiaries. We also monitor Medicare’s finances and work to ensure that proposals to strengthen its financial health do not unduly burden beneficiaries, such as by slashing benefits or shifting costs to them.